Chillin with Josef, Sissi, Sigmund, and Wolfgang Amadeus

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One cannot speak of Vienna without including the many famous historical figures that once inhabited and impacted this flourishing capital city. It is easy to see why so many people flocked, and continue to flock, to such a grandiose city that has functioned as a cultural hub for hundreds of years. The strongest force that brought such wealth and splendor was the Hapsburg family. The Hapsburgs came to power in the 13th century and besides during the times of Napoleon's conquest held on to various levels of power until the end of World War I. The golden age of Austria (and Vienna) came during the 18th and 19th centuries, when the Hapsburgs began to invest heavily in paying local artists and musicians to entertain the royal family. I suppose it is easy to call on Mozart to create an opera for you if you have heaps of money!

My first major Hapsburg sight was the summer villa of the family: Schloss Schönbrunn. Usually when you think summer villa, you picture a quaint house in the countryside. Schönbrunn on the other hand is an enormous estate, with elaborate gardens and an absurd 1441 room palace. Since it wasn't raining too hard, I decided to see what the gardens had to offer. Although I have thoroughly enjoyed touring Europe during this time of the year for not having to deal with crowds, I would have waded through enormous crowds to see the Schönbrunn gardens in full bloom. I am sure it would have been a marvelous experience if the barren trees were full of green leaves, the intricate patches of soil had contained the plantings they were meant to hold, and the sculptures lining the paths were uncovered. That being said, what I could truly appreciate was the scale and you can see this for yourself with this video:

. After touring the gardens, I went on a tour of the palace, where I was able to see a laughable 22 of the 1441 rooms. Unfortunately, I was not able to take pictures so you will see zero of the 1441 rooms. Instead I will give you my best mental picture: ornate decorations, many paintings depicting the royal family, and lots of wooden padded 19th century furniture. Yeah, I know that does them no justice...

What I do have pictures from that depicts the grandeur of the city is the interior of the Viennese Opera House. For two euro with my student id card (thanks again UNH!) I was able to take a tour of the opera house and as you can see in the pictures it is quite impressive. I felt as though I was privy to the high society of Vienna, until the tour guide told us how much it costs to rent the “emperor's” box: 500 euro ($685). Even beyond that, to use the room were the emperor would stay before the show and during intermission costs 1,000 euro ($1,371) for the hour before and that doesn't include anything you order from the waitstaff. Yeah, I guess I would be one of the plebians stuck in the $10 standing room section.

Walking around the city I ventured to a few spots and did little justice to all that was available. I toured the St. Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral) and huffed up the entire 343 steps up 60 meters to the top of the south tower where I was faced with a gaggle of smiling, and seemingly non-affected elementary school children. The views were certainly worth the trek as you can see in the pictures. After this I was able to visit the royal tomb, which housed some extravagantly designed caskets and housed almost the entire royal family. These were certainly not humble resting places. You could tell which were admired the most by their people, depending on the elaborateness of their casket and the flowers left for them. The two most admired by the population are Maria Theresa and Franz Josef's wife Elizabeth. Sissy, as Elizabeth is known, has an almost mythical persona in the Austrian mindset. She is well known for painstakingly ensuring that she kept her beauty, through insane dieting measures and three hour sessions of having servants brush her ankle length hair.

Another man notorious for his vanity and ego was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's most famous work was completed in Vienna, including the opera's of “Figaro” and “Don Giovanni.” I had not known much of his personal struggles beforehand and I was shocked that he was so significantly in debt at many points in his career. It seems as though he had a severe gambling problem and also loved to own very austere, grand, and, most significantly, expensive things. I also did not know that he was a member of the Free Masons, where he turned to many other members for loans of up to 1,000 florens (don't know about the spelling on this one...). In addition, the Austrian National Anthem is actually based upon one of the pieces Mozart wrote for the Free Masons. As Mozart died very young, there were (and still are) conspiracy cases wondering whether or not he was poisoned by a jealous rival. This is most documented by the film Amadeus, which I just so happened to watch while I was in Vienna. What is not a controversy is how influential Mozart was for future generations of composers and musicians.

Another influential man that lived in Vienna is Sigmund Freud. It is here that he had his practice and famous couch! Unfortunately, this couch, and most of the furniture and belongings of Freud left with him when he fled to London. It seems as though the Nazi party where not big fans of Freud's theories, no big surprise there... even though I am sure he could explain a lot of reasons for Hitler's Napoleonic Complex. As a result, Freud's house is mostly a shell of rooms, with some really uninformative visuals, and even the audio guide really doesn't highlight much about the man. Let's just say I made it a point to let everyone in the hostel know that if they want to go see Freud's house, they should just check out the outside for the sake of saying they went. I suppose Freud himself would have a theory as to why I felt it necessary to do this!

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Photos

St. Stephansdom
Yes, there is fake paper covering areas that are under construction

Comments

[anonymous]

I didn't like Vienna as well as some of the smaller cities. It seemed to be screaming, "This is an expensive place!" but, I must admit, the palace. St. step hens and the opera house are worth seeing. Jean